The Case of the Missing Lake…s

As many should know, change is inevitable, and when it happens it can go both ways; the good change or the bad change. Our climate is fast changing, and well people, its not the good kind. We talk about things like paperless forms and paper free solutions not because we are just looking to sell you something but we’re trying to prepare for the future. Trees are fast “disappearing” but there is hope for them. Trees can be planted. What about lakes? Lakes are fast evaporating and its looks like there is no hope for them. Can they be, oh I don’t know, refilled?

LAKES ARE FAST EVAPORATING. I thought maybe capitals would get your attention.

In Africa Lake Chad is the biggest fresh water body covering one twelfth of the continent; it is also not so slowly declining in area and volume.

Studies show that in the 1960’s Lake chad was a whopping over 22,000km square feet and not it stands as a paltry 1350km square feet. According to the UN the lake chad shrunk up to 95% from 1960 to 1998, it covers almost 8% of the continent of Africa and provides water for close to 30 million people. That’s a whole lot of people that depend on a fast shrinking lake.

But I’m sure you might ask, “Why should this bother us? After all, I get water everyday.”

For now you do, but when everything is gone and the great lakes are no more then what? Rainfall and snow levels are already lower this year than usual due to global warming and Most of the water you and I get is from these fresh water sources, lakes, rivers, springs.

We may think that lakes are not our problems but in reality they are every bit our responsibility. The actions that we do, which result in global warming, cause these lakes to evaporate faster than rainfall and snow replenish them. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that water wastage is a huge part of what causes the deterioration of our great lakes of the world.

Going about our daily activities, even the seemingly harmless ones, like having a water fight, emptying out your trash, driving just a few blocks down the road, leaving the lights on, leaving the tap running longer than usual, buying a new bottle because you’re done with the old one, these things lead to carbon emissions. You are leaving a massive carbon footprint on the earth and this causes the depletion of the ozone layer.

The ozone layer is a very, dare I say the most, important part of our ecosystem. It is responsible for protecting the planet from the harmful rays of sun that cause so many terrible things like skin diseases, and drought. Our carbon emissions destroy this layer of protection and leave us vulnerable to the harmful exposures of ultraviolet rays and excessive heat. This causes what we all know as global warming. Global warming is something that affects the entire world and in different parts of the world, no one is exempted from the effects of climate change. From Africa, to Iran, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and America you can see clear changes and the obvious effects of global warming on our planet.

In Iran lake Oroumieh, one of the biggest salt-water lakes on the planet has shrunk over 80% and Oroumieh is still steadily shrinking. Wreckage of boats that had long ago sunk far beneath the deep blue is now visible on the surface of solidified salts and sands. Rocks that were once deep underwater can be walked right over by tourists.

The Aral Sea, a lake between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, was once of the four largest lakes in the world. This great body of water by 2007 had declined over 90% of its volume. The shrinking of the Aral Sea is dubbed famously as “one of the planets worst environmental disasters”. The Aral Sea is over 5 million years old and in less than thirty years we (humans) have managed to destroy what thrived for millions of years.

In America Lake Michigan and Lake Huron have recorded their lowest water levels ever since 1918. Those two lakes produce close to 85% of the nation’s fresh water and with every inch that goes the economy pays drastically for it.

Honestly, I may seem like I’m just blogging without a care in the world thinking that everything is going to be alright but these are very scary statistics and what can ordinary people like you and I do about it besides blog, be energy conscious, and pray and hope that the world changes for the good?

These might seem like small things to do in the face of such big problems but as I have stressed over and over again, everything counts. Not just every good thing but every bad thing you do too affects the planet. Wasting water, electricity, products, somewhere affects our natural resources, you multiply it by billions of people and you have the biggest kind of change imaginable.

This is why I push SignTech paperless forms so much, it is because I really believe that the tree is one of the solutions to climate change are trees (“Tree” is the general term I use for all forms of vegetation). Trees are weapons against deforestation, drought and extinction of wild life. They also are source of food for animals and people, resources, and habitats to many creatures. Trees provide us with oxygen. They’re simply too important to be overlooked. Paperless forms save trees.

SignTech saves trees.

SignTech is an innovative paperless platform that creates forms and documents for full completion, signing and integration. For more information visit www.signtechforms.com or email info@signtechforms.com.